History

“Ink Trails” chronicled the lives and writings of more than a dozen Michigan authors. It was a Michigan Notable Book for 2013. Now, a new edition has been published. Scott Pohl talks with Dave and Jack Dempsey about “Ink Trails II.”

The Grand Army of the Republic fought the Confederacy in the Civil War. When the war was over, thousands of soldiers kept the name and formed their own fraternal organization. The G.A.R. cared for veterans and their families decades before the creation of the Veterans Administration.

On April 6, 1866 – 150 years ago this week – Union soldiers who’d fought in the Civil War came together to form one of the world’s first veterans organizations.

Anne Sullivan, renowned teacher to Helen Keller, described her as “a child in a strange country.”

A new Library of Michigan exhibit of the same name explores the innovative tools and techniques that enabled Helen Keller to learn, not just how to communicate, but later about subjects including science, math and geography.

On March 28, 1941, a small army of construction workers began clearing a five-square mile patch of land near Ypsilanti. The Willow Run bomber plant was the largest aircraft manufacturing facility ever built. Now, 75 years later, Willow Run’s proud legacy of innovation continues.

Today's primary elections in Michigan are closed, with Republicans voting for Republicans and Democrats voting for Democrats. It hasn't always been that way. We talk with Bill Ballenger of The Ballenger Report about Michigan's role in the presidential nominating process over the years.

This year’s presidential primary has turned out to be pretty interesting, but the origin story of Michigan’s state level primaries could give the hoopla of 2016 a run for its money. We learn more about Michigan’s first state primary from Maria Taylor, Assistant Editor of Michigan History Magazine.

A 1930’s era newsreel that nostalgically captures the work that went into keeping the state’s main roads free of snow more than seventy years ago has been rediscovered in a basement in the Upper Peninsula town of Newberry. We learn more about how popular it’s become from MDOT spokesman Dan Weingarten.

The Michigan Historical Center recently got a special donation: the manumission papers of Frank Demas, who likely bought his freedom from a slave owner in Kentucky before settling in Mason, were donated by his family. We hear from state archivist Mark Harvey and Ben Hall, a Lansing musician and descendant of Demas, about this rare piece of history.

In the second part of Scott Pohl’s conversation with Mahtob Mahmoody, author of “My Name is Mahtob”, she describes forgiving her father for holding her and her mother captive in Iran when she was a child.